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University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust

About

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust, rated as good by the Care Quality Commission, is one of the largest teaching Trusts in the UK.

We are extremely proud of our skilled employees across our hospital sites in Coventry and Rugby, with high quality patient care positioned at the heart of everything we do.

Boasting some of the most modern facilities in Western Europe, the Trust is renowned for being at the forefront of research and innovation as part of its blossoming reputation as a national and international leader in healthcare.

We provide general acute hospital services to approximately 500,000 people from Coventry and Rugby and specialist hospital services to over one million people from Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond. The Trust has a revenue budget of approximately £473 million, we employ over 10,000 staff, manage 1,380 beds and 32 operating theatres.

The Trust is made up of the following hospitals:
University Hospital Coventry
Hospital of St Cross – Rugby

Contact

Address: University Hospital Coventry; Clifford Bridge Road; Walsgrave; Coventry; West Midlands; CV2 2DX
Contact Number: 02476 96 9192

Find out more

Jobs Website

Open

Ref: 218-AC-B8A-8334642 Vacancy ID: 8334642

Head of Patient Safety & Risk Management

Accepting applications until: 18-Oct-2026 23:59

Vacancy status: Open

Accepting applications until: 18-Oct-2026 23:59

Location

Gwefan: University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire
Cyfeiriad: Clifford Bridge Road
Tref: Coventry
Cod post: CV2 2DX
Major / Minor Region: Warwickshire

Contract type & working pattern

Contract: Permanent
Oriau: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (37.5 hours per week)

Salary

Cyflog: £57,528 - £64,750 per annum
Cyfnod cyflog: Yearly
Gradd: (NHS AfC: Band 8a)

Specialty

Prif leoliad: Quality

Dyddiad y cyfweliad: 04/11/2026

Swydd-ddisgrifiad a phrif gyfrifoldebau manwl

Lead the operational delivery of learning responses under the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), ensuring timely, high-quality outputs that drive improvement and learning across the Trust.
Work in close collaboration with the Associate Director of Quality for Patient Safety and Risk to ensure the Trust maintains a robust and responsive Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP) that aligns with national PSIRF requirements.
Lead the Trust-wide governance and oversight of patient safety incidents from initial reporting through to closure, ensuring incidents are appropriately triaged, reviewed, investigated, escalated and reported in accordance with Trust policy, PSIRF requirements and national guidance.
Oversee the end-to-end governance of learning responses and investigations undertaken under PSIRF, ensuring proportionate responses are delivered, learning is identified and improvement actions are monitored to completion.
Ensure that all learning response outputs, including checklists and reports, are of consistently high quality, evidence-based, and aligned with the Trust’s PSIRP and broader patient safety strategy.
Maintain oversight of the staffing and resourcing of the patient safety response function, ensuring capacity is sufficient to meet demand and that staff are supported and trained to deliver their roles effectively.
Ensure that learning responses are integrated into the Trust’s wider governance and quality improvement systems, with clear mechanisms for tracking actions, monitoring impact, and sharing learning across the organisation.

Responsibility for Staff

Assumes management responsibility for:
Patient Safety Managers
Mortality and Clinical Harm Lead
Quality Information Lead
Risk Manager
Other Patient Safety staff in the absence of the Associate Director of Quality for Patient Safety and Risk

Additional Responsibilities

Act as deputy to the Associate Director of Quality for Patient Safety and Risk, providing visible leadership, strategic support and operational continuity in their absence.
Lead and manage the day-to-day delivery of the Trust's patient safety and risk management functions, ensuring effective oversight of incident reporting, triage, investigation, learning responses, risk management and action tracking.
Support the Associate Director in the recruitment, induction, appraisal, training and professional development of staff within the Patient Safety and Risk team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, learning and high performance.
Provide expert leadership and direction to the Patient Safety and Risk team, ensuring workloads, priorities and resources are effectively managed to meet organisational and statutory requirements.
Quality assure the outputs and deliverables produced by the team, ensuring investigations, reports, learning responses, risk assessments and committee papers are accurate, evidence-based, timely and of a consistently high standard.
Oversee systems for monitoring incident trends, investigation quality, action completion, thematic learning, emerging risks and organisational compliance, ensuring timely escalation where concerns are identified.
Support the ongoing optimisation of patient safety information systems and reporting processes, ensuring information is translated into meaningful intelligence that supports organisational assurance and continuous improvement.
Lead the design, delivery and evaluation of education, training and development programmes relating to patient safety, PSIRF, incident management and risk management, developing resources and presentations tailored to the needs of clinical and non-clinical staff.
Prepare and present high-quality reports, assurance papers, dashboards and briefings for Trust committees, executive leadership meetings and Board-level forums, providing clear assurance regarding patient safety performance, risk, investigations, organisational learning and compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.
Provide expert advice and guidance to senior leaders, managers and clinicians on patient safety incidents, investigations, governance requirements, organisational learning and risk management.
Work collaboratively with operational, clinical and corporate teams to ensure learning arising from incidents, complaints, claims, inquests and risk reviews is embedded into practice and translated into measurable improvements in patient care.
Represent the Trust at external meetings, networks and forums, acting as an ambassador for UHCW's approach to patient safety, organisational learning and risk management, while maintaining awareness of national developments and best practice.
Ensure high standards of data quality, validation and governance across all patient safety and risk datasets.
Use advanced analysis of incident, harm, mortality and risk data to identify trends, emerging risks and opportunities for improvement.
Promote the effective use of digital tools, including incident management systems, Excel-based analysis, business intelligence platforms and reporting solutions, to strengthen organisational oversight and assurance.

For further details of the role please see the attached job description.

To ensure that we provide world-class patient care, UHCW recruits people that can demonstrate the Trust’s Values and Behaviours in their everyday life. Therefore, if you are invited to interview, you will be undertaking a Values Based Interview/Assessment, which explores not only what you do but how and why you do it.
Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust’s Values and Behaviours which can be accessed on the right side of this page under the job description.
The Supporting Information Section in your application should therefore reflect your understanding of the Trust’s Values and associated Behaviours. You will be expected to provide us with examples from work experience and/or personal life which demonstrate these values through your behaviour.

The Trust is committed to Equal Opportunities within the workplace. All vacancies will be considered for Job Share unless otherwise stated. All applicants who have a disability and who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be interviewed. Where a post has an overwhelming response, this Trust may use random selection in order to reduce numbers to interview, any disabled applicants will automatically be guaranteed an interview and will be exempt from this process.

In submitting an application form, you authorise University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust to confirm from your previous or current NHS employer and other prior employers; previous NHS service details and personal data held about you, including Occupational Health data (inoculations and screening tests). This data will be transferred using NHS Electronic Staff Record and third-party systems via an automated process and only used for the purposes of obtaining and maintaining accurate employment records, should you be appointed to the post.

UHCW NHS Trust, by virtue of its Green Plan, is committed to ensuring that the way we provide services minimises the impact on the environment and the future health of the public e.g. zero waste to landfill, reducing our carbon footprint and increasing our recycling and reuse percentages.

If you are successful at interview you will receive a conditional offer of employment and we’ll ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete all pre-employment checks to progress to a final unconditional offer.

We must confirm the identity of our staff and their right to work in the United Kingdom. We will ask you to submit proof of your identity and right to work documents via a secure digital platform approved by the Home Office, named TrustID. Alternatively, you may be asked to attend our office with original documents.

Depending on you level of exposure with patients you may be required to undertake a Standard or Enhanced DBS. The cost of this check will be charged to you and will be deducted from your salary over the first 3 months of employment at the current rate.

All correspondence will be sent by email; please check your account regularly including your Junk/SPAM folders

Person specification

Qualification/Training

Meini prawf hanfodol

• Degree level education or equivalent experience. • Postgraduate qualification, professional training, or equivalent experience in patient safety, risk management, governance, quality improvement, healthcare management, or a related field.

Meini prawf dymunol

• Healthcare-related professional qualification. • Qualification or formal training in patient safety investigation, PSIRF, quality improvement, leadership, governance, or risk management. • Management or leadership qualification.

Experience

Meini prawf hanfodol

• Senior leadership and management experience within a healthcare or similarly complex organisational environment. • Experience leading patient safety programmes, services, or functions. • Experience of providing assurance regarding patient safety, quality and risk to senior leaders, executive teams and governance committees. • Experience of implementing and operationalising the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) or comparable patient safety frameworks. • Experience working within risk management and governance environments. • Experience of developing, implementing and monitoring governance, risk and assurance frameworks. • Experience of developing systems, processes, dashboards and reporting mechanisms to monitor performance, risk, compliance and organisational learning. • Experience of analysing and interpreting complex patient safety, risk and quality data to support decision-making and service improvement. • Experience of presenting complex information and providing assurance to senior leaders. • Experience of leading and developing multidisciplinary teams, including recruitment, appraisal, performance management, workforce planning and staff development. • Experience of influencing and engaging staff at all levels of an organisation to deliver quality, governance and patient safety objectives. • Experience of leading change management, service improvement, and transformation programmes. • Experience of developing and delivering training, education and awareness programmes. • Evidence of effective partnership working across clinical, operational and corporate services.

Meini prawf dymunol

• Experience of NHS governance and assurance programmes. • Experience of managing Datix or similar incident and risk management systems. • Experience of working with regulatory bodies and external stakeholders. • Experience of quality improvement methodologies and their practical application.

Knowledge

Meini prawf hanfodol

• Extensive knowledge of patient safety principles, systems-based approaches to safety, and organisational learning. Extensive knowledge of risk management frameworks, methodologies and best practice. • Extensive knowledge of PSIRF and national patient safety policy. • In-depth understanding of NHS governance, assurance and accountability frameworks. • Understanding of the role of Board assurance, committee structures and governance reporting in providing organisational oversight of patient safety and risk. • Knowledge of NHS regulatory requirements and their relationship to patient safety, quality governance and organisational risk. • Understanding of Board Assurance Frameworks, corporate risk management and escalation processes. Knowledge of incident reporting, investigation and learning systems. • Knowledge of quality improvement methodologies and their application to patient safety. • Understanding of data analysis, performance reporting and the use of intelligence to drive improvement. • Awareness of current and emerging issues affecting healthcare quality, governance and patient safety.

Meini prawf dymunol

• Knowledge of Datix or equivalent risk management software. • Working knowledge of business intelligence and data visualisation tools. • Knowledge of national patient safety initiatives and wider NHS quality improvement programmes.

Skills

Meini prawf hanfodol

• Highly developed analytical skills, with the ability to assess, interpret, synthesise and communicate complex qualitative and quantitative information from multiple sources. • Advanced ability to identify trends, themes, risks and opportunities from data and translate these into meaningful actions and assurance. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including report writing and presentation of complex information to senior audiences. • Excellent interpersonal and relationship management skills, with the ability to influence, negotiate and challenge constructively. • Strong leadership and people management skills. • Ability to assimilate complex information quickly and communicate key messages effectively. • Ability to work independently and collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams. • Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise competing demands and manage multiple deadlines. • Excellent attention to detail and commitment to accuracy. • Advanced digital and information management skills. • Advanced Microsoft Excel and data analysis skills, including the ability to manipulate large datasets, identify trends, develop dashboards, produce performance reports and generate meaningful patient safety intelligence. • Proficient in Microsoft Office applications including Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. • Ability to develop meaningful performance reports, governance papers and assurance dashboards. Excellent understanding of information governance, record keeping and audit requirements. • Ability to manage challenging, sensitive and complex situations professionally and effectively.

Meini prawf dymunol

• Experience of business intelligence and reporting tools. • Advanced statistical analysis skills. • Experience of system development, digital transformation or process automation.

Commitment to Trust Values and Behaviours

Meini prawf hanfodol

• Must be able to demonstrate behaviours consistent with the Trust’s values. (As detailed in UHCW’s Values in Action document below) • Applicants applying for job roles with managerial responsibility will be required to demonstrate evidence of promoting equal opportunities through work experience

Documents

Further details / informal visits contact

Enw: Sam Caton
Teitl y swydd: Associate Director of Quality, Patient Safety&Risk
Cyfeiriad ebost: [email protected]
Rhif ffôn: 02476965181
Gwybodaeth i gefnogi eich cais: To arrange a Microsoft Teams call to discuss the role please email [email protected]